"Peter, Peter, don't sleep!"
"Peter, get up!"
"Something's happened!"
"Huh… what? What is it?"
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, little Spider-Man yawned as he looked at Ned, who was hunched over the computer, tinkering with it.
"Look—"
Ned didn't say much. He simply turned the screen toward him.
At that moment, the computer was still connected to the purple energy device Blaine had given them. Clearly, Ned had managed to decode something new.
Little Spider-Man immediately sensed it as well. He sat up abruptly, leaning in close to the screen to examine it.
"It's the same group dealing in alien weapons."
Afraid that Peter might still be half-asleep and not fully processing what he was seeing—and unable to keep quiet as usual—Ned began explaining rapidly.
"It looks like what you took down yesterday was just a small branch."
"They've got another major operation tomorrow."
"And this time, there might be higher-level figures involved."
"Not only that—the scale of the deal is huge."
"More importantly, it's happening on a cruise ship on the Mississippi River."
"And it's close to us."
"Peter—no, Spider-Man—"
"It's time to act."
"That's right. This time, I'll definitely prove myself to Mr. Tony."
"He's going to be seriously impressed with me."
"Oh, right—Ned, I need your help with something."
"What do you need?"
"Look at this."
"Whoa—hey! Is this your new suit? That's incredible!"
"Oh—what material is this made of? That's so cool!"
"Is this a tracker?"
"Oh, wow—this must be the web-shooter upgrade!"
"And this—this device—I've seen this before!"
"I think it was at a Stark Industries press conference—"
"This is a new type of nanoscale molecular composite, right?"
"Right, Peter?!"
"Oh man, that's amazing!"
"If I were you, I'd wear this every day."
"I'm in love with it."
At some point, little Spider-Man had taken out the new suit Tony had given him. As expected, Ned—who had always idolized Spider-Man—was nearly beside himself with excitement, practically drooling over it.
"Okay, okay, Ned,"
"Wipe your drool already."
"This is a special gift from Mr. Tony for my good behavior."
"Don't get any funny ideas."
"If I didn't need your help, I wouldn't have taken it out."
"Brothers!"
"Just tell me what you need, Peter—I'll do anything."
"As long as you let me touch the suit, how about it?"
Hearing that Spider-Man needed his help, Ned immediately puffed out his chest and agreed without hesitation. But when it came to the suit, his tone turned pleading again.
"It's nothing too difficult."
"It's your specialty."
"You know how Mr. Tony is—he doesn't want me acting on my own."
"That's why he sent Happy to keep an eye on me."
"So there must be a monitoring system built into this suit…"
"Maybe—no, there must be tracking and positioning devices."
"No problem, leave it to me. Go to sleep first. Save your energy for tomorrow. I'll handle the rest."
"Good night, bro."
After a long while, the room next door finally went quiet. They must have fallen asleep.
Lying on his bed, Blaine frowned slightly. Everything had been normal—so how had they suddenly uncovered new clues in the middle of the night?
Hmm? Wait. The alien device… the clue…
After thinking it through, Blaine quickly understood what was going on.
If he remembered correctly, it was very likely that Spider-Man's actions had already irritated Uncle Psy. Vulture wanted revenge.
As a businessman, his mind was naturally sharp. He must have realized that Spider-Man had tracked their operations through that alien device. So instead of hiding, he played along—feeding Spider-Man false information, setting up a trap, waiting for the moment to strike. A classic case of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
What a cunning old fox.
With that realization, Blaine relaxed and drifted back into a deep sleep.
---
"Ned, what happened?"
"Uh… sorry, Peter. I got too excited last night… accidentally snapped a couple of wires."
"But don't worry! I'll fix it today."
"What about the tracker? Did you remove it?"
"Of course! You can trust me."
Early the next morning, Blaine was once again woken by the noise from next door. He didn't know what those two were up to this time, but it sounded like Ned had damaged Spider-Man's suit.
After everyone got up and assembled, the teacher and the bus driver, Happy, organized breakfast before leading the students onto the bus for their trip to the tourist site—Big Ben.
However, Blaine quickly noticed that Spider-Man had slipped away again at some point. Judging by Ned's backpack, he hadn't taken the Spider suit with him, and even the purple-glowing alien device had been left behind.
Of course, with Spider-Man gone, there was no way Blaine would obediently stay on the bus. As soon as Happy realized Spider-Man was missing again and started reporting to Tony, Blaine quietly disappeared into the crowd as well.
This time, though, Blaine had no intention of following Spider-Man. He had already planned to visit Big Ben yesterday, so he was content to leave Spider-Man to deal with his own mess.
After all, the hotel they had stayed in last night was quite far from the tourist site—probably chosen by the school to save money—so the bus ride would take a while. That was exactly why Blaine didn't feel like sitting around waiting. Walking on his own was not only faster, but far less boring.
As Blaine leisurely took in the scenery along the way, he eventually arrived at the destination—well before Happy and the school bus.
Watching them finally pull in, Blaine couldn't help but shake his head. For someone who used to be an agent, Happy drove painfully slow. Where was the urgency, the edge? He didn't look like an agent at all.
*************************************
You can get access to early chapters on patr*on
If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.
My patr*on account is Lord_Immortal_0170